Poster Parade – Literary London

Every three months a new Poster Parade is installed for visitors to enjoy at London Transport Museum (LTM). The themes of the poster parades are often selected to either showcase a particular strength of the LTM poster collection, coincide with an exhibition or celebrate national or international events such as the Olympic Games. The poster parades are usually curated by young museum professionals such SOCL trainee curators or University of Leicester Museum Studies Interns. A SOCL trainee curator is a traineeship position provided by Cultural Cooperation in partnership with London Transport Museum through their Strengthening Our Common Life (SOCL) programme which encourages greater diversity in the Museum workforce.

As a current SOCL trainee at LTM I had the privilege of curating the current Poster Parade, Literary London, which explores the ways in which designers have engaged with the subject of literature in posters commissioned by London Transport and Transport for London. The display also celebrates National Storytelling Week (30 January – 6 February 2016) and World Book Day (3 March 2016).

Selection and Design Process

Posters

The theme for the exhibition was chosen because literary references are a recurring theme in London’s transport posters, from the early 20th century to the present day. The posters displayed in the exhibition were chosen because they are prime examples of four ways posters engage with books and literature and they are arranged in four sections to reflect this. The sections are called Country Walks, Children’s Book Illustrators, Poems and Prose and Today’s Commute – Read all about it. Posters from the Country Walks series were chosen because they are an example of a London Transport publication. A section about children’s book illustrators was chosen because many poster designers in the collection were also children’s book illustrators or come from an illustration or graphic design background. Poems were an important addition to the Poster Parade because the Museum holds a large collection of posters from the Poems on the Underground series. The last section Today’s Commute – Read all about it contains posters with literary references from the contemporary poster collection.

The order of the posters was chosen to reflect the sections and look visually appealing. This process was aided by a creation of a virtual model on SketchUp Make software which allows Curators to move the posters around and visualise what they would look like once they were installed without the physical objects. This was advantageous in regard to selecting the best posters and order for the display. Please see below for an example of a mock up:

Interpretation material

Interpretation material was written in accordance with the Museum’s editorial guidelines which detail for example, how TfL and its predecessor institutions should be referred to and that written material should provide neutral accounts of historical or political events. The curator writes the introduction panel and labels. The interpretation material is edited by the senior curator and librarian to ensure the guidelines are adhered to and the text is written to the best standard possible. Once the editing process has been completed it is given to the design department for formatting and printing. The labels are printed in NJ TfL Book (16 point) typeface which is the house style and digital version of the Johnston typeface which is used across TfL from signage to publications. This is a clear san-serif font like Helvetica which is favoured by publishers and designers for its clarity which makes it suitable for a museum audience to read.

The Poster Parade can be found on Mezzanine Level 1 of the Museum and is on display from 29 January – 29 April 2016.

*Links to external websites are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by London Transport Museum of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organisation or individual. London Transport Museum bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of the external website or for that of subsequent links.